what may or may not be hard reality

Pet Peeve of the Day:

I read a lot of lesbian romance novels. Like, a *lot*. Lesbian romance and crime/mystery novels make up 97% of everything I read (and I read a lot). And I like action. I like a good action movie, I like an exciting mystery novel filled with action, and I like a good romance novel set against a backdrop of action and mystery. I like stuff that features agents, cops, procedurals, private investigators, Xena, all that stuff. However, I'm starting to get a little tired of that plot twist that inevitably arrives 3/4ths into the book where one or both parties are placed in mortal danger (kidnappings, car accidents, train wrecks, crazy exes, terrorists, assassins, robbers, etc, etc) forcing one or both of them to instantly realize that they cannot live without each other. But I'm getting to the point where it's starting to feel almost a little like a cop-out. Like for *once* can I have a couple where they're actually forced to *talk* about it, and work through all their issues and mental blocks and all that crap to arrive at the conclusion that they love each other and can't live without each other.

Now, it's not that it's not good. It's not that it's not exciting. It's not that I don't like it. I do like it. I like excitement and danger and brave and noble women who try to make the world a better place and who place themselves in harm's way because they believe in their cause, and I like it when they're forced to set aside whatever personal issues they have because the situation is dire and there's no room for it right now. And lots of writers write this really really well, and I enjoy it thoroughly, most of the time.

But like the one I'm reading right now, and I don't wanna tell you which one it is, because it's a good book, and it's not this book's fault in any way, it's an accumulated feeling, but it has competent professionals who value other people and the greater good over themselves, and our two heroines have huge elephant-sized honking pasts that have built fortresses with guards and cannons and moats and marksmen around their hearts, and they've been drawn to each other over the course of the book, and they've gotten closer and then been pulled apart several times, both by other people and their own demons, all according to good romance novel fashion, and now with about 1/5th of the book left there has been this huge catastrophe, and one of them is missing, and they're about to become painfully aware of how much they love each other, and all the walls and all the past will just be gone, like that, because the disaster came and stripped it all away. And you know, that's not a bad plot-twist. It's exciting and full of action and assorted heroics.

But, just once in a while, I would like my brave noble women to have to pull the fortresses apart by themselves. No outside forces aiding abetting them (I don't mind a lot of action and mystery, but the two can co-exist), just my brave noble women forced to rip the walls down, stone by stone, with their bare hands, and the reader getting to follow along in the process. Is it too much to ask?

Disclaimer: if you're a writer and you've written this plot twist at some point, and you happen across this, this does not mean I do not enjoy these books. I do! Lots! I've written it myself, as well! I just... once! With their bare hands!